Bunning has been single-handedly blocking the stopgap legislation since Thursday, to the increasing discomfort of Republicans like Collins. Collins said 500 people from her state would lose their unemployment benefits this week, while doctors will soon have to absorb a 21 percent cuts in their Medicare reimbursements.

“This issue is so important to senators on both sides of the aisle,” Collins said.

The argument is whether the cost of a 30-day extension of jobless benefits should be added to the deficit, which Bunning opposes, or come out of the economic recovery package. But to have one senator hold up the works in such a manner is what clogs the wheels of government and results in nothing getting accomplished.

“Today we have a clear cut example to show the American people just what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.,” [Washington Senator Patty] Murray said. “That is because today one single Republican senator is standing in the way of the unemployment benefits of 400,000 Americans.”

Bunning is retiring, so he really doesn’t care. The person urging him to retire is his own minority leader, Mitch McConnell, also from Kentucky, who believes Bunning would lose reelection.